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(1/6 Thread) Today I am thinking about @helenhgardener, the woman who endured a public sex scandal at 23, changed her name + moved to NYC, and ended up securing Congressional passage of the #19thAmendment 
. #19thAt100 #suffrage100
. #19thAt100 #suffrage100
2/6 HHG also helped convince President Wilson to get the Gov of TN to call a special ratification session, which is how it came to pass that 100 years ago today TN became the 36th State to ratify the #19thAmendment . Details in #FreeThinkerBook w @wwnorton https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324004974
. Details in #FreeThinkerBook w @wwnorton https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324004974
3/6 HHG also sheds led on the role racism played in Congressional passage, revealing that the #19thAmendment only passed bc everyone knew it would not enfranchise black women in the South. For all her iconoclasm, HHG could not see her way through racism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/04/how-racism-almost-killed-womens-right-vote/
only passed bc everyone knew it would not enfranchise black women in the South. For all her iconoclasm, HHG could not see her way through racism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/06/04/how-racism-almost-killed-womens-right-vote/
4/6 I am also thinking of all the other women who fought (and continue to fight) for political rights in order to gain control over our bodies. HHG fought for women to be recognized as “self-respecting, self-directing human units with brains + bodies that are sacredly their own.”
5/6 To put an exclamation mark on her point, HHG (known as the "Harriet Beecher Stowe of Fallen Women") donated her brain to science prove the equality of women. Today it floats in formaldehyde in a jar outside @Cornell's psych dept.
6/6 As we reflect on the #19thAmendment today, we continue to fight for universal voting rights and the right to our own bodies. I am marking the day by supporting @KateForCongress (in my home OH-1) @emilyslist + @staceyabrams' @fairfightaction. Happy #19thAt100 from me + HHG.
today, we continue to fight for universal voting rights and the right to our own bodies. I am marking the day by supporting @KateForCongress (in my home OH-1) @emilyslist + @staceyabrams' @fairfightaction. Happy #19thAt100 from me + HHG.
